The Army sergeant who admitted to gunning down 16 civilians in a 2012 rampage through two villages near his outpost in southern Afghanistan reportedly apologized Thursday, describing the massacre as an "act of cowardice."

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales pleaded guilty in June to more than 30 criminal charges, including 16 premeditated murder counts.

The plea spares the 39-year-old Bales the prospect of a death sentence in the killings. He now faces life in prison, but a jury of four officers and two enlisted personnel will decide whether he will have a chance at parole.

Florida A&M University said Thursday that its famed Marching 100 band will return to the field for the first time since its suspension after the hazing death of a drum major nearly two years ago.

The band had been one of the top university marching bands in the United States, but Robert Champion's death and other reports of hazing damaged its reputation.

"We have made a thorough assessment of the students who have auditioned for the band and firmly believe that we are ready to return and positively represent Florida A&M University and its proud students, faculty, alumni and community," Sylvester Young, director of marching and pep bands, said in a statement.

The state of California is set to fine Pacific Gas and Electric Company $2.25 billion for the deadly San Bruno, California, pipeline rupture in September 2010.

The Safety and Enforcement Division of the California Public Utilities Commission recommended the penalty for three cases arising from the Sept. 9, 2010, incident, which killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes.

A military judge on Wednesday set a May 29 court-martial for U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hasan is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder charges for the alleged shootings at the post's processing center, where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hasan's court-martial has been repeatedly delayed since it was initially set to begin in March 2012, most notably after an appeals court delayed the case over the question of whether the Army major's beard could be forcibly shaved.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has been transferred from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to Federal Medical Center Devens, a facility that holds detainees who need medical care in north-central Massachusetts, U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade said Friday.

The two women wounded when Los Angeles police shot at their pickup truck during the manhunt for renegade ex-officer Christopher Dorner will split a $4.2 million settlement, attorneys for the city and women told reporters Tuesday.

The details of the settlement need to be approved by the Los Angeles City Council, they said.

The Syrian government is using chemical weapons against rebel forces, the head of the Israel Defense Forces' intelligence research departments said Tuesday.

"In all likelihood they used sarin gas," Brig. Gen. Itai Brun said Tuesday in a speech at a conference in Tel Aviv. This comes as a civil war between the government and rebels rages across Syria - which borders Israel.

Analysts believe the Syrian government may have one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the world. The supply is believed to include sarin, mustard and VX gases, which are banned under international law. Syria has denied the allegation.

A short video released by the FBI on Thursday shows two suspects in Monday's Boston Marathon attack walking single file on a sidewalk along the race route.

The video was released Thursday as investigators asked for the public's help in identifying the two men.

One of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings left a bag believed to contain one of the explosives outside the Forum restaurant on Boylston Street in the city, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers said. The bag was dropped there "within minutes" of the explosions, he added.

An explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant Wednesday night in West, Texas, a witness told CNN.

A hospital in Waco, Texas, has been told to anticipate 100 injured people coming in from a fertilizer plant where there was a massive explosion, an official at the medical facility says. Glenn Robinson, CEO of Hillcrest Hospital, said a field triage station was set up at the plant some 18 miles north of Waco after the Wednesday night explosion.

Tommy Alford, who works in a convenience store about three miles from the plant, told CNN that several volunteer firefighters were at the store when they spotted smoke. Alford said the firefighters headed toward the scene and then between five and 10 minutes later, he heard a massive explosion.

CNN affiliate KWTX showed a photo of the explosion - which reportedly happened around 7:50 p.m. (8:50 p.m. ET) - showed a huge plume of smoke rising high into the air.

Hundreds of flights have been canceled Wednesday nationwide - including in Chicago and Denver - due to bad weather, airport officials said.

Airlines have reported 400 cancellations - out of 1,700 flights daily - at Denver International Airport due to a storm that is forecast to dump seven inches of snow in the area, the airport said at 2:50 p.m. (4:50 p.m. ET). The announcement came before the heavy snow had arrived.

Delays at the Denver airport are averaging just over two hours and 15 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

At O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, meanwhile, more than 300 flights have been canceled due to bad weather.

The Chicago Department of Aviation reported the cancellations at 3:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. ET), as well as the fact that delays for flights that were still on - both in and out of the busy airport - averaged one hour or more.

Airlines reported delays of 30 minutes or more at Midway, another Chicago airport, the city department said.

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